Tag Archives: Stress

At FIT, you have many opportunities to do a credited internship through the school. Along with the internship in the field, you also are required to take an internship class simultaneously. The internship class itself only meets 6 times throughout the semester. Having already attended 3 out of the 6 classes, I figured that I would fill you in on what usually happens in an internship course:

You discuss your internship and your experiences each time you meet

You reflect on what went well in your internship and what accomplishments, big or small you achieved

Write journals reflecting on your experience and how you can improve

Submit your internship time sheets

Have a midterm evaluation by your supervisor

Discuss your company’s mission statement

Network with other students within the class to gain connections and hear about their internship experience for your future reference

Commonly realize that there are so many people in your building from FIT

The class thus far has really helped me evaluate my internship and what I can improve on as an intern. Hope this helps some of you curious about the internship process!

If you would have asked me what I wanted to do with my life this time last year, I would have told that you I was going to be a beauty photographer shooting ad campaigns for Sephora, Urban Decay, and Chanel. Today if you were to ask me, I would say that I want to be a photo editor on the digital aspect of a magazine (the .com/social media portion) and a group fitness instructor. It’s amazing how much changes over a year. While my life did not change all that much, I am different person compared to freshman year me. I am more responsible, passionate, confident in myself as a person and an artist. I didn’t give up on my dream, my dream just changed a little bit. I am still in the photography realm of everything, but my outcome and how I picture my life upon graduation and 10 years plus has changed.

It is important especially in college, and a college like FIT to continue to keep an open mind and to know that it is okay to change your mind. While it can be difficult to completely switch gears at FIT, imagine yourself out of college and try to imagine what you want to be doing regardless of your declared major. Go after your passions and take control of what you love. Don’t let anyone stop you.

Most of you reading this probably haven’t even started college yet, so I’m sure you’re not thinking about the way it will end. Well one day, in the distant future, you too will have your last first day of school.

It is a weird sensation to know that this could very well be my last first day of school ever. That is, unless I go to grad school or take a night class. I’ve always had the strange desire to be that one old person who is in at least one of your classes each semester without fail.

^^ Me tho

I couldn’t sleep the night before. I’m not sure why, I mean I have done this first day of the semester thing seven times already – maybe it was because I stayed up until 4 am over the weekend? Nah, that couldn’t be why. Of course, waking up the next morning was hard and I ended up oversleeping a little which meant I had to rush. Great. The commuting time is earlier than it had been in the past few weeks for my job, so I forgot that the hundred or so elementary schools surrounding my apartment opened at the same time. This meant that the Dunkin’ near my house was full to the brim of yelling, confused and spatially unaware ten year-olds. No coffee for me then. Already late I rushed to the 6 train station only to find it was backed up. Even going to the very end of the platform didn’t help! Two trains later I got on, woo! Oh wait, just two stops and we’re delayed because someone got sick. About fifteen minutes of waiting. It was at this point that I realized I would not have time to wait on line for the new sticker for my ID. Every dang semester! Would I ever learn? Guess it’s too late now. I decided I would just have to do what I normally do, which is mumble something incoherent to the security guard about being late and run through too quickly for them to stop me. I could always come back after class. Five minutes late to film class. Damn, he already started. Luckily, the professor turned out to be really cool and the class was quite fun. Leaving class I have five texts and a missed call. The rest of the day was cancelled because of the impending blizzard. Tuesday too. This was the strangest last first day ever.

Hi everyone! how was your first day back? I know mine was cut short and I had a very long commute home. On the way home though on the slow moving train I had a lot of down time.

Something about beginning your twenties and beginning a new chapter in your life becomes a little sentimental. You all know what I’m talking about everyone goes through the motions. You thought you had a plan and now you don’t know if your making the right decisions or your experiencing things that are incredibly more difficult then usual. You suddenly have ten years ahead of you that are jam packed with major life changing events. But its hard knowing what you want these next ten years to be like, but you often can’t settle with just simply not knowing. As you continue on through your next life stages you will start to realize things about life that will make your journey easier .

#1. You will Fail at something more than once, even the things you love.

At some point you will screw up your life like crazy, like really mess it up to a point you didn’t know was even possible. It will happen more then once in your lifetime too trust me. You are going to want to give up, you are going to want to be alone, or be with friends. But KEEP GOING I promise you it is worth it. This past semester I had one of those royal screw ups , not because I wanted to but because of life changing events that kept happening to me. I chose my emotions over the things I have worked so hard for, but I got through it and I am stronger then ever.

#2. How important is it to move away from home? Extremely

Lately I know a lot of friends that have been getting into it with there parents, whom all of which live at home and are in there twenties. Moving away will help this problem dissolve , it will make you realize what home actually means to you. You start to appreciate the little things and you the things that make you cringe go away. It helps you figure out who you are, how much you can take and how you will handle your life from this moment on.

#3. Debt? Your in college sweetie ( Haha)

Yes, everyone thinks they are in debt because they are in college. But are you making a mess of your credit score? do you have any money left in your account? If you have money to spare and your not in crazy debt take my advice. Travel, invest , learn something you always wanted to. I know for me I’d much rather live a life of debt if it was one I was proud of. If I did the things I always dreamed of, rather then be in debt and have no cool stories to tell. These experiences will change your life.

#5.What do you like? What don’t you like?

I know for me I landed my dream job , which I was working hard at everyday to realize it wasn’t what I wanted. Test things out before committing to it for life. You will try new food in your life, change your favorite drink or flowers a million and one times . This is what makes your twenties , you need to learn who you are , what you love and what you hate more then anything in this world. Let go of what others think and be you! You will realize nothing else matters if your not truly happy.

Lastly #6. Learn who is really there for you

Man did I have trouble over this past year with this. At this point in your life so much stuff changes you go to college, you graduate, move, different jobs, have kids (maybe) the normal things people do. Sometimes your friends from high school will not continue to follow you through the motions of life , and that is really hard to be ok with sometimes. But you will make so many new friends, join new circles and start networking. It’s kinda like that movie bridesmaids, yes we’ve all seen it , if you haven’t watch it you’ll love it. She gets all of her bridesmaids together some old and some new and they don’t clash. Her maid of honor feels like she’s changed because of the new people she’s around but that’s not the case she just found more things she enjoys. People will come and go through your life, just remember you can’t force anyone to stay nor would you want them to if you have to force them.

Being in college and a new stage of your life is difficult but don’t ever think your alone. Millions of people your age are feeling this way, most just don’t talk about it. Or they haven’t faced that one really bad screw up moment yet, once you do you’ll know what it feels like.

How is everyone feeling tonight on this snowy evening? Any new life changes?

Today is first day of the rest of my life (post-college). What I’m trying to say is, I’M DONE WITH FINALS! I just realised this means, no more homework, no more all-nighters, no more finals EVER (well at least until I do my Masters lol). What am I going to do with my life? (uhm I can think of a million things honestly). For starters I already signed a lease (wow growing up real quick) and went on one job interview (please keep your toes crossed). Seems like im settling down, right? I shall keep you guys updated with this breaking story (haha).

In the meanwhile for those of you, who still have some finals to go or have just started the first round of finals in your FIT lifecycle I have some words of wisdom I’d like to share. This post is mostly about how FIT helped me survive this week and how I myself nailed it.

1. Need some stress relief? Go to PET Therapy! Yes, you heard right puppies that will play with you and help you forget about everything (I just love FIT). Little fluff balls pouncing around waiting for a treat greeted you at the library. It was seriously a very popular event (I mean the line was 45 mins long) but completely worth it.

2. Treat yourself after completing that ridiculously long exam. What better than retail therapy, with a purpose? This year for the second time we launched the holiday pop-up shop made by VPED 3rd semester students in collaboration with The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s thrift shop. Last year we raised $35K in just five days, this year we MUST break the record.

3. Just add water, literally haha. This week marks the special care package week where we students receive love from our parents and family in the form of food. The perfect survival kit in a box, for those moments when you just need to study. If you are loved you got one of those blue boxes, if you didn’t don’t fret there is always canned tuna salad in the vending machines (yeah, NO judgments allowed here).

4. Holiday Lights will remind you it is ALMOST Christmas. That moment when you feel your head is about to explode, just walk out and get lost in the lights. There is something about these blue twinkly lights that promises there is light at the end of the tunnel.

5. And my personal favorite is, study hard but be real. Whatever you didn’t learn in the past 4 months will not come magically to you overnight. Do study, but don’t die in the process. Sleeping is equally as important, because if you miss the alarm because you were too tired all that studying was just time lost.

Ever since hmm…about third grade we have been told that time management is the most important skill you can posses. Yet, no one ever really explained how to manage time well. I guess it is because everyone works differently, and you can’t really stop someone from procrastinating. There could be a power outage and I would still find a way to avoid doing work.

Despite my procrastinating abilities, it has never created a problem where I didn’t hand in work on time. My issue is remembering to do all my work. I have a terrible memory. It is my hamartia, my Achilles’ heel, my inevitable downfall.

Or is it inevitable? (Hint: it’s not.) After being burned by this once (okay, more than once) I went through the four stages of “efficiency enlightenment”. Step one: Denial – I know I usually have a terrible memory, but this time I’m gonna remember to do this. It’s only one assignment, how could I possibly forget about it? Step two: Get distracted and lose all memory of everything that is important and necessary – Okay time to go home/get a snack/take this Buzzfeed quiz. Step three: Shock and anger – OH !*%#( I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO WRITE/PRINT/FINISH THAT THING!! Step four: Acceptance and enlightenment – Wow, I am so dumb. I am never letting that happen again. Wait, what’s due next class? Lemme write that down.

And there you have it, the secret to never missing an assignment again. Okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but it works for me. I freaking love planners. I write everything in them – due dates, ideas, random notes, schedules… you get the picture. Usually I try to get my hands on an FIT planner, which is much more official than the one I’m using now. It has all the actual dates with space to write assignments, little calendars, quotes from famous people and pictures of FIT student’s work, which is my favorite part. They give them out to freshmen at orientation, just one of many fantastic reasons to actually go to orientation. Usually, they have the extras at the Student Life center where I swipe them from, but this year there weren’t any! So, I had to improvise. It’s almost nicer because I have more room for random notes, which I have a lot of surprisingly.

But everyone knows the best part about writing down everything you have to do is crossing it out. Nothing feels better than making a nice big scratch across an assignment that has been taken care of. One less thing to do! I am also a big fan of circling and underlining the important/usually forgotten stuff. Do you guys have any tricks for getting work done?

While many dread the planning and prep and stress of registration, I LOVE IT. I love being able to schedule my life and know how my following semester is going to look. I thrive on planning and organizing so registration is my Christmas. While I have made a post on registration every time it rolls around, there are important points to reinforce and introduce (and who wants to dig through thousands of posts):

Talk to your academic advisor
Make an appointment with your academic advisor even if you know what classes you have to take. It is comforting to have your schedule and courses solidified by those who know best. Also, for those who don’t know, not all courses are available to all majors – including liberal arts. Therefore, it is best to make an appointment before you register! Here is the link to make an appointment: http://www.fitnyc.edu/13575.asp

Plan AheadOnce you have the classes that you are planning on taking, make up your schedule. Map out a tentative schedule and plan out your biggest/most important/longest classes first and revolve your classes around that.

Write down the CRN codesThe CRN codes are the first things that you can type in to register for all your classes. If you have all the CRN codes for your classes, you type them in when it’s your registration time, hit submit and you’re all set.

Be flexibleThis one isn’t the easiest, especially for me. Sometimes you won’t get the classes you want so you have to be prepared to move your schedule around.

Don’t stressRegistration is exciting because that means you are one semester closer to graduating. Keep your chin up and know that winter break is soon!

For most of you, midterms are done this week or next week and that is the exact reason why you deserve to celebrate. There is no better way to celebrate than with some shopping (We are FIT after all). The following is a pretty accurate narrative of the struggle and anxious-excitement that are midterms GOSSIP GIRL EDITION:

If questioned twice, I will deny this post ever existed (something along the lines of identity theft). Bearing that in mind I will proceed to share my secrets with you (hahaha).

Ciao incoming students,

As you plan out your first semester (and swear you are about to die, so stressed out) there are some things that have come in handy through the years when it comes to registering and choosing classes.

You will be assigned a faculty adviser according to your last name, you can and you should email this person as soon as you receive the email. Later on, you will find out that you like a certain teacher better and you can request to change :). I got snowed in during my first week, so I had to assign myself my own adviser which turned out to be wonderful, because I chose someone who fit (no pun intended, well maybe a bit) me.

Search for your curriculum at the FIT website. Home –> Academics–> Undergraduate Programs–> Fashion Merchandising Management–> Curriculum. This will help you have an idea of what the next two years of your life will look like. Minimum credits for a full-time student: 12, max credits per semester: 21.

Who doesn’t like ending the semester as early as possible to enjoy Xmas back with the family or just to explore NYC better (you nodding your head, pay attention NOW, will not regret)? As much as I love FIT, I am a metal to a magnet, I can feel the stronger pull to return back home early (long distance relationship, love of my life, target acquired) so I plan things to end early December. How? Well, (refer to the top quote haha) you look up the semester calendar. Look at what day is the last day, this fall the classes to end up the latest are Friday (sometimes can be Monday) classes, which means I plan my whole semester around NOT taking Friday classes (perks: long weekends, every weekend).

Log in to MyFIT before your assigned date and time and look up at courses (use class search), days, time slots, availability and professor if noted (ratemyprofessor them). Create two mock schedules by u in excel and write down the CRN (course reference number, duh right ), this will make registering a one minute deal. You will log in, click on student tab, under online resources click Registration, choose semester, copy paste your CRN’s and done.

Check out what your major has to offer, I know International Trade & Marketing offers advisement tracks, where they suggest what courses you should take, depending on what your dream job is. Don’t be afraid to click around the website, or Google what you want to do after graduation (I know it seems far out and away, but better not let it take you by surprise).

Make an appointment with our (well now yours too, CONGRATS) Academic Advisement Center, they are happy to meet with you in person, online, or via telephone (convenient, yes!). They want to make your “academic experience as smooth and rewarding as possible” if that is not enough for you, at their front desk there is always free candy (no questions or comments just ransack the bowl haha).

Welcome to the beginning of an amazing chapter in your life! You will not regret this decision, so many doors will be opened for you that you will look back in hindsight and laugh at yourself ever even considering other options. Below, a peek into your great future:

Midterm week(s) are almost over so obviously it’s been a lot of all-nighters, coffee, and stress so you deserve a little TLC. Here are my top 5 places to treat myself after a stressful week of school:

Yogurtland, Off the Wall, 16 Handles, or Red Mango….so basically frozen yogurt. Yogurtland and Off the Wall offer discounts for FIT students. Once this brutal winter is over, you can expect to see me there very frequently.

Brooklyn Bagel. Yeah Panera is always delicious, but you haven’t had a true bagel and cream cheese until you go to Brooklyn Bagel on 8th Ave between 24th and 25th. The assortment is unlike any other bagel place. Take that Panera.

Auntie Anne’s. While the street vendor pretzels are delicious, the fresh and buttery ones at Auntie Anne’s don’t even compare. Stop by their location in Penn Station and get your hands on one.